(Name-mce) ListServ Education schools have 'not kept pace with changing ... technology, ' group says

[Howe, William]

    http://www.eschoolnews.com 

 

Report slams teacher-education programs 

Education schools have 'not kept pace with changing ... technology,'
group says 

 

>From eSchool News staff and wire service reports 

September 19, 2006 

 

Despite growing evidence of the importance of high-quality teaching, the
vast majority of the nation's teachers are being prepared in programs
that have low admission and graduation standards and cling to an
outdated vision of teacher education, according to "Educating School
Teachers," a report released Sept. 18. 

 

The report, issued by the Education Schools Project, identifies several
model programs but finds that most education schools are engaged in a
"pursuit of irrelevance," with curricula in disarray and faculty
disconnected from classrooms and colleagues. These schools have "not
kept pace with changing demographics, technology, global competition,
and pressures to raise student achievement," the study says. 

 

Three out of five education school alumni (61 percent) say their
teacher-education training did not prepare them well to cope with the
realities of today's classrooms, according to a national survey
conducted for the study. School principals also gave teacher-education
programs low grades, with fewer than one-third of those surveyed
reporting that schools of education prepare teachers at least
"moderately well" to address the needs of students with disabilities (30
percent), a diverse cultural background (28 percent), or limited English
proficiency (16 percent). 

 

Fewer than half of principals surveyed reported that education school
alumni are very well or moderately well prepared to use technology in
instruction (46 percent), use student performance assessment techniques
(42 percent), or implement curriculum and performance standards (41
percent). 

 

"Teacher education is the Dodge City of the education world," said
Arthur Levine, the author of the report, president of the Woodrow Wilson
National Fellowship Foundation, and former president of Columbia
University Teachers College. "Like the fabled Wild West town, it is
unruly and chaotic. There is no standard approach to where and how
teachers should be prepared, and the ongoing debate over whether
teaching is a profession or a craft has too often blurred the mission of
education schools that are uncertain whether to become professional
schools or continue to be grounded in the more academic world of arts
and sciences." 

 

Because universities tend to rely on schools of education as "cash
cows," the report said, the quality of teacher education is compromised
by setting low admissions standards to help boost enrollments and
revenues. Although the SAT and GRE scores of aspiring secondary-school
teachers compare with the national average, the scores of future
elementary-school teachers fall near the bottom of all test takers, with
GRE scores reportedly 100 points below the national average. 

 

State quality-control mechanisms focus too much on process, not
substance, and vary dramatically, the report claims. For example, the
amount of field work required ranges from 30 hours in one state to 300
hours in another, and the number of required reading credits ranges from
two to 12, it says. 

 

Accreditation does not assure program quality, either, according to the
report. Of the 100 graduate schools of education ranked by U.S. News and
World Report in 2005, three of the top 10 schools were accredited,
compared with eight in the bottom 10. In addition, Levine's report found
no significant difference in students' math or reading achievement,
regardless of whether their teachers were prepared at nationally
accredited institutions. The study was prepared by the Northwest
Evaluation Association, which controlled for teacher longevity. 

 

The report includes an action plan to improve U.S. teacher education.
Its recommendations include: 

 

*Transforming education schools into professional schools focused on
classroom practice; 

 

*Closing failing programs, expanding high-quality programs, and creating
the equivalent of a Rhodes Scholarship to attract the best and brightest
students to teaching; 

 

*Making student achievement the primary measure of the success of
teacher-education programs; 

 

*Making five-year teacher-education programs the norm; and 

 

*Strengthening quality control by redesigning accreditation and by
encouraging states to establish common, outcomes-based requirements for
teacher certification and licensure. 

 

Sharon Robinson, president and chief executive officer of the American
Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE), commended Levine
for the study. She called the findings "sobering" and added, "We take
them seriously ... there is no one from whom we would rather receive
this study's 'tough-love' findings. We agree with some, but not all, of
his recommendations." 

 

Robinson said teacher education already is undergoing a dynamic
transformation. She referred to an AACTE publication, "Teacher Education
Reform: The Impact of Federal Investments," which documents some of
those changes. 

 

 

 

Levine's report calls for new accreditation standards, but the AACTE
"would not support wiping out 50 years of forward progress in improving
the quality of [teacher] preparation programs," Robinson said. "The
history of the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education
shows a pattern of continuous improvement and increasing rigor in the
standards and requirements of its accreditation process. We need to
build upon that solid base, not tear it down." 

 

She added: "We are perplexed at the report's recommendations for
financial incentives to disproportionately expand the high-cost, highly
selective, elite institutions that attract fewer teacher candidates. We
need to be more inclusive than that." 

 

AACTE also recognizes the importance of integrating digital technologies
into teacher-education programs and ensuring that program graduates are
skilled at using technology to enhance their instruction, Robinson said.
The group holds an annual conference called the National Technology
Leadership Summit, which takes place later this week at AACTE
headquarters in Washington, D.C. 

 

The Education School Project is a non-partisan organization that
promotes balanced debate on how best to prepare the teachers,
administrators, and researchers who serve the nation's schoolchildren,
according to the group's web site. 

 

The study of university-based teacher-education programs is the second
in a four-part series by the group. The first part, "Educating School
Leaders," focused on the education of school administrators. The third
part will examine the quality of education research and the preparation
of the scholars and researchers who conduct it. The final report will be
an overview of U.S. schools of education, where the overwhelming
majority of school leaders, teachers, and scholars are educated. No date
has been set for the release of these final two reports. 

 

 

 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
William A. Howe, Ed.D.
Education Consultant for Multicultural Education & Gender Equity
Connecticut State Department of Education - Bureau of Educational Equity
165 Capitol Ave. Rm 312, Hartford, CT 06106 
Telephone: 860-713-6542 * Fax: 860-713-7496
email: william.howe at ct.gov
website: http://www.state.ct.us/sde

11th Annual Connecticut Conference on Multicultural Education, Marriott
Hotel, Farmington, CT -Oct. 16, 2006,
<http://www.state.ct.us/sde/calendar/index.htm>  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

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